Search Sweet Country

Abundant pleasures are provided in this first novel by a prodigally gifted Ghanian poet. It is set in 1975, in Accra, a churning, fluid society caught in transition between colonialism and freedom, tradition and Western influences, tribal society and modern life. Cultural dyspepsia may result from these contentions: ""I get indigestion,'' says the Ghanian wife of Scottish university professor Sackey, forever ``analyzing'' his adopted country's nature and spirit, when she asks herself ``what philosophies should we have, what sort of spirit do we bring to technology, or how much of ourselves are we prepared to cast off?'' A character named -Allotey, healer and farmer, a man of ``small education and much mud,'' reaps difficult harvests of fish and beans. Dr. Sam Yaw Boadi practices bureaucratic sleight-of-hand. Kofi Loww, student and dreaming idealist, ``walks with the sky in his eyes.'' Kojo Okay Pol genially lusts after money and power but settles for becoming a photographer. Wonderfully realized, highly individuated characters spill through the rooms, streets and marketplaces of a city fully rendered and a nation erratically assuming shape in its shadows. (April 28)